A Sunrise District Meeting

Check out how the sunrise looks through the bushes.

From 10-27-09Frank

Last week, Elder Bullock and I were invited to attend a sunrise district meeting in San Fernando, which is about a 1 hour drive from our apartment. Elder Bullock grumbled a little when we had to set the alarm for 3:45 am in order to get there before the sunrise but he obediently jumped out of bed when we heard the ring of the alarm.

Here's a photo of what San Fernando hill looked like when we arrived.

From 10-27-09Frank

Now I just have to make a comment about the elders. I keep making the mistake of believing everything they tell me.

When Elder Toupou said it was only a five minute walk to where his sunrise district meeting was to be held, on top of San Fernando hill, I, once again, naively believed him.

He said, "We'll just walk down this path and we'll be there in no time."

Soon the path turned into a steep road. The elders continued to walk with a brisk step while Elder Bullock and I quickly lagged behind as we huffed and puffed our way along.

Elder Toupou was the only one turning to see if we were still following.

From 10-27-09Frank

We needed to be at the top before 5:45 in order to see the sunrise.

We were almost there when, luckily for us, the elders stopped to look over the cliff.

From 10-27-09Frank

We were just happy to finally stop huffing and puffing and climbing.

Then, I noticed this cute little sign at the edge of the cliff. Hmmmm! "Maybe those elders shouldn't be standing so close to the edge", I thought. But, who cares what an old lady thinks, anyway!

From 10-27-09Frank

When they continued climbing up to this ledge, I knew I wasn't following! Notice, I'm way below them as I snapped the photo.

From 10-27-09Frank

Luckily, they decided we had climbed high enough to see the sunrise and have our meeting, and...out came the sun! Wow!

From 10-27-09Frank

We were all feverishly snapping photos from every angle. I think this was one of the four Elder Jones in the mission.

From 10-27-09Frank

Here he is again posed with our favorite book!

From 10-27-09Frank

The meeting was held around this huge picnic table and here we are as it is finishing.

From 10-27-09Frank

The lesson was well taught by Elder Toupou from Australia about heeding the words of the prophets.

We ended the meeting by each of us sharing why we were serving our missions. I cried a few tears...as usual. Twas a tender moment for all.

Yes, the sunrise was delightful but the district meeting was more than delicious!

It was definitely worth all our huffing and puffing to be there!

Our man, Frank

Tonight was haircut night…for Nigel Frank, our friend with the dreadlocks that was baptized last Saturday.

What shall I tell you first? About his baptism? Or his haircut?
They were both very exciting occasions!

From 10-27-09Frank

We’ve been teaching Frank for the 4 weeks we’ve been in Trinidad. We have visited him and taught him almost daily through that period of time. When I say “we”, I’m referring to the two young elders, Elder Lang and Elder Cotton, and to us two old folks, Elder Bullock and I.

We’ve had some very eventful evenings teaching Frank who lives alone. During that period he has quit smoking cigarettes and marijuana and quit drinking alcohol and coffee. He has read the Book of Mormon almost daily. He has moved out the two young girls who had moved in with him. He has stopped “liming” with his old friends. Liming means hanging out and drinking.

Frank has made a lot of changes in his life in four weeks time. It took him a while to conquer the cigarettes or he would have been baptized earlier. We are so proud of him.

Saturday he was baptized in the ocean which is a five-minute drive from our apartment.

The water was just the right temperature and they waded in to where it was waist deep.

Elder Chambers didn't hesitate to join them in the water fully dressed when he realized he was needed to witness the baptism!

Notice Frank tucking his dreadlocks into the back of his baptismal suit as he walked.

From 10-27-09Frank

Elder Lang gave him a few instructions.

From 10-27-09Frank

Hooray, they did it!

From 10-27-09Frank

A perfect photo of four happy men!

From 10-27-09Frank

Right after the baptism, we had a testimony meeting. In his testimony, Frank described his baptism in this way. “It was different than just going under the water. My whole soul felt refreshed as I went down under the water and came back up. I was wishing I could go under the water a few more times!”

Sunday he was confirmed and that night we visited him again. Elder Cotton asked him when he was going to cut his hair. Frank had mentioned previously that he was going to do so. Once again, he assured us he was going to cut it.

Elder Cotton pleaded, “Oh please, Frank, cut it before I am transferred on Wednesday. We’ll bring over the clippers on Tuesday night and cut it. I’ve just got to see you cut it!”

So, when we drove up in front of Frank’s house with the clippers tonight, we were wondering if he really wanted to cut off his long dreadlocks. Elder Bullock said, “Let’s not put any pressure on him,” and we all agreed we wouldn’t.

When we walked in his front room and took our usual seats, we could see that Frank was scurrying around getting ready for his haircut.

He was ready…and so were we. We had brought the clippers and had 3 cameras ready to document the big event.

From 10-27-09Frank

Frank asked for a prayer before the haircut began. After the prayer, Frank indicated he was ready for the haircut to begin and Elder Cotton started cutting off all the long dreads with scissors.

From 10-27-09Frank

It didn't take long for Elder Cotton to snip all off. He saved the little one in front for last.

One last quick snip and the front lock was history. Frank was looking pretty calm, wouldn't you say?

From 10-27-09Frank

The pile of dreadlocks...

From 10-27-09Frank

Then, Elder Cotton started plowing through the hair that remained with the clippers. It was slow going because his hair was so thick and curly. Frank said, “I want it shaved with the shortest setting possible,” and so he shaved him bald.

I just had to jump in to help clip off his beard.

From 10-27-09Frank

Aren't we cute?

From 10-27-09Frank

The room was dimly lit so I’m not sure how well we did. We’ll see tomorrow in the daylight. We may have to have a second go around to clip whatever hairs were missed.

Frank looked like a new man. He looked ten years younger after his hair was cut...and he was still grinning.

Here's the finished product!

From 10-27-09Frank

Frank is wearing a huge smile these days! He is thrilled to have been baptized and for the new direction his life has taken.

Here he is wearing the huge hat that he used to wear over his big mop of hair with his big smile.

From 10-27-09Frank

Actually, when I think about it, Frank doesn’t just look like a new man, he is a new man!

Meet Point Fortin Branch

The Pt. Fortin Branch has 30 members. Meet the young women as they kiss their Book of Mormons at the end of singing "Scripture Power"...

From 10-9-09

The primary kids reverently listening to my primary lesson...

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The Relief Society partying it up... Branch President Mohammed is standing behind Elder Bullock.

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The upstairs church...

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Another perfect photo of the primary kids... The little girl in the red dress wouldn't tell me her name so I had to call her "Red Dress" all through primary.

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And now you get to see the faces of two of our cute Young Women and two of our young women...if you understand what I mean!

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Here's a better look at our branch president along with Elders Lang, Cotton, and Bullock.

From Drop Box

And the elders, what are they doing?

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Here's Elder Bullock with Blessed and Antonio. Anyone have trouble seeing?

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Our Zone Meeting

Last week, Elder Bullock and I got to meet our new zone of elders.

From 10-9-09

A great lesson was taught to us by our zone leaders, Elders Rosales and Chambers.

The name of one of the elders I hadn't met before, looked familiar...Elder Wehl. When I learned he was from Suriname, I asked him if his dad and little brother had gone to the temple the month before. Yes, he had been there!

I figured out that we had met his dad at the temple in the Dominican Republic when we went for our temple trip. We were in the sealing room when his dad was sealed to his deceased wife, deceased son and younger son. We knew at that time he, also, had a son on a mission.

Elder Wehl was the son on the mission. How excited I was to show him the photos in my camera of his dad and little brother at the temple.

From 10-9-09

After the meeting, we ate a little chocolate cake, of which Elder Bullock got the last licks.

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Here's another look at our handsome group of elders. You know, we can be serious... when necessary!

From 10-9-09

Aren't we lucky?

We arrived in Pt. Fortin, Trinidad, 2 weeks ago.

We knew noone and we were totally confused by the tangle of one-way streets. Elders Lang and Cotton quickly came to our rescue.

From 10-9-09

They began to take us around with them as they did their visiting and teaching. Here are some of the great people with whom we are teaching.

First comes, Nigel Frank. We call him Frankie. Notice the little squeeze I'm getting as we pose for this photo!

From 10-9-09

He's so excited about the Book of Mormon I had to stop in the middle of our discussion and take his photo with it.

From 10-9-09

We strongly suggested to him he needed to ask the two young girls that were living with him to move out of his house before he was baptized. When he told them they had to leave, they refused to go and physically fought with him. Eventually, he had to lock them out of his house to get rid of them.

All that night, they tried to break into his house. They even threatened to burn it down if he didn't let them stay. The girls are gone now but here's a pile of their things they left behind on his veranda.

From 10-9-09

Here's where Frankie lives.

From 10-9-09

The elders wanted me to be sure and get a photo of what is painted on his house (Jah First). It has some special meaning to a rasta man(a man who wears his hair in dredlocks like Frankie does) but I can't remember what it is!

From 10-9-09

Frankie is very anxious to be baptized. He is making lots of changes in his life and we're excited for his baptism to happen very soon! He wants to be baptized in the ocean, which is very close by.

Here's Frankie's neighbor's place just down the block.

From 10-9-09

Here's another house we tried to tract at, but noone was home.

From 10-9-09

Yesterday, the elders led us up to the top of a hill. They had a contact who lived up there they wanted to visit. We parked the car and as we walked down to the house we noticed a young girl washing clothes on the step. It didn't take us long to learn from her that our contact wasn't home.

As we turned to leave, I wondered how I could get a photo of this picturesque scene without the girl seeing me. We were just about out of sight when she walked inside and I was able to quickly snap this photo.

From 10-9-09

Before we climbed back into our car, the elders insisted on yelling "Inside!" to the house across the way. The man poked his head out from the back of his house and said he "might" come to church in response to their invitation, but refused to give them his phone number when they tried to schedule an appointment to come back.

Do you suppose he's interested? Not on your life!

From 10-9-09

Let me introduce you to a special lady, Kathy Ann, pronounced Kattie Ann. We have been meeting with her every day for about two weeks. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and is about on page 100.

I'll invite you to walk with me along the fence back to her house. On the right behind the fence are two big pit bulls that bark at us as we walk towards her house.

From 10-9-09

Here's the house which we pass on our left.

From 10-9-09

At last we are at Kathy Ann's house. We'll climb the steps, remove our shoes and pass through the curtain that hangs at the door.

From 10-9-09

The last couple of times we've taught her, her "man" has been there for us to teach. They have lived together for 8 years. Yesterday, when we met with them, they said they had some exciting news for us. With a little coaxing, they finally told us they were hoping to get married and baptized next week. Yes! It was exciting news!

Here they are pictured with two of their three daughters just after they shared their good news with us. They are looking pretty pleased in this photo, don't you think?

From 10-9-09

The little girl's name is Blessed. What a great name for a darling little girl. Why didn't I think of that when I was naming my little girls? Check out her fancy hairdo both front and back!

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As we turn to leave, the pit bulls, once again, bark ferociously at us and cause us to shake a little more in our boots.

From Drop Box

It looks like the elders have made it safely by the dogs.

From 10-9-09

We're hoping for some baptisms next week. If they happen, I'll let you know for sure!